No longer entrusted simply with delicate movies, women directors have finally shown that they can do anything a man can do -- and often do it better

Martha Coolidge is happy this week. Not manic. Certainly not smug. For the moment, and for a change, she is content with her Hollywood lot.

Her mood is understandable. Coolidge is the director of Rambling Rose, and she has a well-deserved hit on her hands. Her eighth film, it is a marvelously sexy and eccentric comedy. The critics like it, and despite an absence of superstar names, audiences like it too. In these circumstances, anyone would be entitled to feel just fine.

Yet something more than personal success colors Coolidge's satisfaction. Though Rambling Rose is a singular artistic achievement, it should...